WEST SPRINGFIELD, Massachusetts – Leslie Hudson-Tolles of Newtown will be among the many presenters at the Equine Affaire event opening this week at the Eastern States Exposition grounds in West Springfield, Massachusetts.

Her first clinic, entitled Drawing Horses: A How-To With A Live Horse For Children and Beginner Artists of All Ages, will be held Friday, from 3 to 4 pm, in the Arabian Horse Association Youth Pavilion. And then on Saturday, in the GLC 5500 Demo Ring of the Mallory Arena, Ms Hudson-Tolles will present You, Your Horse and a Sketchbook: Laying the Foundations of Equine Art from 1 to 2 pm.

Ms Hudson-Tolles has been a fixture at the Equine Affaire since 1999 and has been exhibiting art all over the region for the past eight years. Her most recent exhibition opened in August at the New England Carousel Museum in Bristol – Invitation to Ride: Horses of Wood, Horses of Warmth.

In the spring of 2004, she won the first place Staff award and second place People’s Choice award at the Colored Pencil Society of New England Juried Exhibition in Peterborough, New Hampshire. In late 2003, she was the featured artists on The Colonade at the Sharon Art Center Gallery in Peterborough and she has exhibited at the American Academy of Equine Art Fall Show at the International Museum of the Horse at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky in 2000, 2002 and 2003.

Her horses have been featured on the cover of The Chronicle of the Horse, Visions, in Equine Images, The Horseman’s Yankee Pedlar, and California Riding Magazine. She has art in the collections of the Newman/Woodward family, Denis Leary, John Lyons, The Phil Marino Racing Stables and Brian Williams.

Ms Hudson-Tolles works in colored pencil, graphite and pastels and she uses her etched zinc plates to pull unique monoprints.

She lives with her daughters, horses, dogs, and variety of barn cats in Newtown and current is an art educator in the Ridgefield public school system.

With numerous training clinics, seminars, demonstrations and the infamous Pfizer Fantasia, the popular Equine Affaire Horse Show will run November 10-13.

The show will run from 9 am to 7:30 pm Thursday through Saturday and 9 am to 5 pm on Sunday. Adults are $12 ($36 for four-day pass) and kids 7 to 12 are $7 ($21 for four-day pass). Kids six and under are free. General admission includes admission to all clinics, seminars and demonstrations (no registration is required for any session).

The Pfizer Fantasia Musical Celebration of the Horse will begin at 8 pm with doors opening at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $12, $16, $18 and $24 (box seats).

For further ticket info, call 1-740-845-0085 or visit www.equineaffaire.com on the web.